Students greeted by Confederate eyesore

As the fall semester approaches and the majority of us are faced with the usually overcrowded sidewalks, long food lines and annoyingly redundant syllabus explanations, the sense of familiarity can be a tad overwhelming, to say the least.Although this familiarity can have its perks from time to time for knowing what to expect and when to expect it, there’s something in particular that has eluded all of our expectations for the beginning of the 2016-17’ school year, and the funny part is, we walk past it nearly every day.

Back in late April, Mayor Greg Fischer and former U of L President James Ramsey announced that the 121-year-old Confederate monument between The Ville Grill and the Speed Art Museum would be removed.This announcement came after years of controversy surrounding the monument, and more recently after the Chair of Pan-African studies and U of L professor, Ricky L. Jones scrutinized the presence of the monument in an op-ed published by The Courier-Journal.

Fischer announced alongside Ramsey that the monument would be disassembled, repaired and lastly cleaned before it is placed into storage awaiting relocation.Unfortunately for us and the community that has to withstand this eyesore on a daily basis, none of this has actually happened.

What has happened is a considerable amount of counterproductive moves that have either prolonged the process of the monument’s removal or furthered the debate that the monument should stay where it’s at regardless of its blatant disregard for a forward thinking environment.

Unnecessary lawsuits from former congressional candidate Everett Corley, and pressure from groups such as Sons of Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of Confederates, have added to the hysteria behind the monument’s removal. Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell fought against this aforementioned lawsuit in late May, and it has since been lifted by Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman. Both Burkman and O’Connell sided with Fischer’s initial plans for removal.

More or less, as the majority of us were settling into our summer breaks by relaxing at the pool or heading down to the beach, arguments of where and if the statue should be removed were exhausted to an almost annoying degree.And even though honorable approaches to replace the monument with a statue of Louisville native Muhammad Ali have been widely petitioned, there’s hardly been any progress for the time being.

The most embarrassing part of this entire situation is that it’s 2016 and we’re still having to jump through so many hoops to remove a symbol that represents a time where owning human beings was a formidable cause to fight for.

You’d think immediately after the restraining order was lifted back in May that we would’ve seen leaps towards getting it as far away from campus as possible.Yet here we are, starting the fall semester off with an ugly reminder that even though we can escape the classrooms for a few months and enjoy our time off, problems we had going into the summer will be here to greet us once more when school begins.

It must be extremely welcoming to the incoming freshmen class to be greeted by a monument that’s been around since a time in when it was looked down upon for white people to even hold conversations with others outside of their race.What a great first impression.

At a time where racial tensions continue to boil, it’s important we look at the removal of this monument from a progressive standpoint.

If we claim to be a university who prides itself on diversity, it might just be time to get rid of the one thing on campus that screams intolerance.

About Nick Amon

Nick Amon is the Opinion Editor for The Louisville Cardinal, all views and opinions are of his own. If you have an opinion of your own that you'd like to see in The Cardinal, email him at namon@louisvillecardinal.com

You neoNazi comments are a sure sign of your ignorance, intolerance, and LACK of diversity and inclusion. You have no concept of our nations history, except for the progressive, Marxist myths you have probably been force-fed. You should try reading a true history. The Confederacy was not formed to perpetuate slavery, though Lincoln and the North offered to make slavery permanent! It was formed to continue Constitutional government in America. Until America learns the truth, we will continue down the dark road towards tyranny.

If this college teaches that the war was all about slavery, you better pick another college that teaches the truth. But then progressivism is equivalent to revisionism and communiseum. I really feel sorry for college students being filled with propaganda and lies. They will find it really difficult to function in the real world.

Well in all reality this is one mans vendetta. For 22 years he has been crying about intolerance when in fact he is the intolerant one. This monument is dedicated to the soldiers who never came home. Only a ass hat trying to promote his name would truly try to remove this monument and the vote pandering mayor that has attacked it as well. We all know Slavery was NOT the true cause of the War of Northern Aggression, just about as important as the WMD’s in Iraq. Do your own research, its clearly written out if you choose to open your mind. I hope the Governor can step in and stop this. We all know that this monument will not be cleaned, nor ever placed again. It deserves to stay where it is. Do not tear down thy monuments our fathers have built. As for the racist, the most racist person is the one trying to remove it.

I am a native son of the Commonwealth, proud of my Confederate heritage, alumni of the University of Louisville, and ashamed of the city and U of L for wanting to dishonor Confederate veterans. Greg Fisher and Jim Ramsey lied to the people of Kentucky as to the motive to move the monument. This is unacceptable. I am offended by this lie and will no longer support the University of Louisville in any capacity

The Marxists have brainwashed these students. I guess education isn’t as important as their agenda. It’s not about a monument and these so called educated people can’t be so stupid that they think it has anything to do with slavery. It’s an attempt at a cultural genocide. A culture that they consider a “white” culture because that’s what they have been taught. So the administration of U of L will not be satisfied until it’s re named Kill Whitey University.

I agree much with all of the preceding comments. To dishonor one’s forebears by rewriting history creates a slippery slope, my friends. The men honored by this monument were truly men of honor who fought to defend their homes and families, not to permit the tiny minority who actually owned slaves to continue to do so. Slavery was already a dying practice, and I believe that many southerners not only recognized that fact to be true, but looked with expectation toward that end.It appears to me that that much of the “war to continue slavery” myth is coming to an end, and rightfully so! Deo Vindice!

Theses comments are spot on. Sadly, removing a statue that honors veterans and those that died In that war or any war isn’t going to change race relations or tolerance. It just shows that the folks in charge are a bunch of PC whiny asse$. Sad, they are suppose to be grown men but act like children.
No monument honoring our veterans and / or our war dead should be removed from anywhere, at anytime. It is wrong and disrespectful on every level.

The only racist morons are the writer of this hate propaganda and the newspaper. This is a historical monument and the haters are no different than ISIS terrorists who want to destroy history. The Nazis did the same thing against the Jews.

This has to be one of the most culturally insensitive historically ignorant opinion pieces I’ve read in a long time. The confederate monument in question is very beautiful and represents all races of people from the area who defended their homes and families from illegal invasion. There have been no historically grounded complaints about it, only bigoted politically motivated criticism. The confederate monument represents enlightenment and a positive step toward a future that has firm foundation in the constitution and a willingness to defend one’s rights.

The confederate army was the most diverse army ever. It took America the ending of world war 2 to ever accomplish this. So tell me witch army is the bad guy? Yes you guessed it . The union army was.they are the ones who invaded a sovereign nation.

The monument has stood for over 121 years. Since its erection cars, planes, and space travel has been developed. It’s meaning is a memorial for the thousands of young men from KY who died in the bloodiest war the country was ever engaged in. Confederate veterans are afforded the same respect and privilege as United States veterans. At a university that supposedly prides itself on knowledge, tolerance, and diversity, where is the tolerance in this case? All I see is narrow mindedness and a true lack tollerance and diversity.

I was already to go off after reading the article, but my fellow defenders of the South have done a much better job. That monument represents two of my forefathers, who did not own slaves, who fought to defend Kentucky from a foreign invader an d preserve the right of self governance. It needs to remain where it is!
And, if memory serves, there was a family in Kentucky that was one of the largest slaveholders in the states. Let see, I think that family’s name was Todd, who had a daughter named Mary, who married a jack wagon named Abe….need I say more?

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The Louisville Cardinal is the independent weekly student newspaper of the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.[1] It is published every Tuesday during the academic year and once in late April for distribution throughout the summer. The Cardinal was founded in 1926 and has maintained financial and editorial independence since 1980. The Cardinal serves as an outlet for aspiring journalists. Ralph Merkel is the adviser and Kyeland Jackson is Editor in Chief.